The Last of the Mohicans

FOURTH NARRATIVE FIFTH NARRATIVE SIXTH NARRATIVE I II III IV V SEVENTH NARRATIVE EIGHTH NARRATIVE EPILOGUE I II III PROLOGUE THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799...

In the first part of _Robinson Crusoe_, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written: “Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we co...

I spoke of my lady a line or two back. Now the Diamond could never have been in our house, where it was lost, if it had not been made a present of to my lady’s daughter; and my lad...

The question of how I am to start the story properly I have tried to settle in two ways. First, by scratching my head, which led to nothing. Second, by consulting my daughter Penel...

I am truly sorry to detain you over me and my beehive chair. A sleepy old man, in a sunny back yard, is not an interesting object, I am well aware. But things must be put down in t...

The first thing I did, after we were left together alone, was to make a third attempt to get up from my seat on the sand. Mr. Franklin stopped me. “There is one advantage about th...

Keeping my private sentiments to myself, I respectfully requested Mr. Franklin to go on. Mr. Franklin replied, “Don’t fidget, Betteredge,” and went on. Our young gentleman’s first...

While I was in this bewildered frame of mind, sorely needing a little quiet time by myself to put me right again, my daughter Penelope got in my way (just as her late mother used t...

Here, for one moment, I find it necessary to call a halt. On summoning up my own recollections—and on getting Penelope to help me, by consulting her journal—I find that we may pas...

June twenty-first, the day of the birthday, was cloudy and unsettled at sunrise, but towards noon it cleared up bravely. We, in the servants’ hall, began this happy anniversary, a...

One on the top of the other the rest of the company followed the Ablewhites, till we had the whole tale of them complete. Including the family, they were twenty-four in all. It was...

When the last of the guests had driven away, I went back into the inner hall and found Samuel at the side-table, presiding over the brandy and soda water. My lady and Miss Rachel c...

The Thursday night passed, and nothing happened. With the Friday morning came two pieces of news. Item the first: the baker’s man declared he had met Rosanna Spearman, on the prev...

I found my lady in her own sitting room. She started and looked annoyed when I mentioned that Sergeant Cuff wished to speak to her. “_Must_ I see him?” she asked. “Can’t you repre...

The nearest way to the garden, on going out of my lady’s sitting-room, was by the shrubbery path, which you already know of. For the sake of your better understanding of what is no...

The Sergeant remained silent, thinking his own thoughts, till we entered the plantation of firs which led to the quicksand. There he roused himself, like a man whose mind was made ...

We found my lady with no light in the room but the reading-lamp. The shade was screwed down so as to overshadow her face. Instead of looking up at us in her usual straightforward w...

Nothing happened in the night; and (I am happy to add) no attempt at communication between Miss Rachel and Rosanna rewarded the vigilance of Sergeant Cuff. I had expected the Serg...

Going down to the front door, I met the Sergeant on the steps. It went against the grain with me, after what had passed between us, to show him that I felt any sort of interest in...

The news of Rosanna’s disappearance had, as it appeared, spread among the out-of-door servants. They too had made their inquiries; and they had just laid hands on a quick little im...

Those in front had spread the news before us. We found the servants in a state of panic. As we passed my lady’s door, it was thrown open violently from the inner side. My mistress ...

The first words, when we had taken our seats, were spoken by my lady. “Sergeant Cuff,” she said, “there was perhaps some excuse for the inconsiderate manner in which I spoke to yo...

My mistress having left us, I had leisure to think of Sergeant Cuff. I found him sitting in a snug corner of the hall, consulting his memorandum book, and curling up viciously at t...

I had kept the pony-chaise ready, in case Mr. Franklin persisted in leaving us by the train that night. The appearance of the luggage, followed downstairs by Mr. Franklin himself, ...

I am indebted to my dear parents (both now in heaven) for having had habits of order and regularity instilled into me at a very early age. In that happy bygone time, I was taught ...

Mr. Godfrey followed the announcement of his name—as Mr. Godfrey does everything else—exactly at the right time. He was not so close on the servant’s heels as to startle us. He was...

Consideration for poor Lady Verinder forbade me even to hint that I had guessed the melancholy truth, before she opened her lips. I waited her pleasure in silence; and, having priv...

The signing of the Will was a much shorter matter than I had anticipated. It was hurried over, to my thinking, in indecent haste. Samuel, the footman, was sent for to act as second...

My hand dropped from the curtain. But don’t suppose—oh, don’t suppose—that the dreadful embarrassment of my situation was the uppermost idea in my mind! So fervent still was the si...

(1.) “Miss Clack presents her compliments to Mr. Franklin Blake; and, in sending him the fifth chapter of her humble narrative, begs to say that she feels quite unequal to enlarge ...

The foregoing correspondence will sufficiently explain why no choice is left to me but to pass over Lady Verinder’s death with the simple announcement of the fact which ends my fif...

“I have lost a beautiful girl, an excellent social position, and a handsome income,” Mr. Godfrey began; “and I have submitted to it without a struggle. What can be the motive for s...

My fair friend, Miss Clack, having laid down the pen, there are two reasons for my taking it up next, in my turn. In the first place, I am in a position to throw the necessary lig...

The next thing I have to do, is to present such additional information as I possess on the subject of the Moonstone, or, to speak more correctly, on the subject of the Indian plot ...

The prominent personage among the guests at the dinner party I found to be Mr. Murthwaite. On his appearance in England, after his wanderings, society had been greatly interested ...

In the spring of the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine I was wandering in the East, and had then recently altered the travelling plans which I had laid out some months before, a...

“Betteredge!” I said, pointing to the well-remembered book on his knee, “has _Robinson Crusoe_ informed you, this evening, that you might expect to see Franklin Blake?” “By the lo...

I have only the most indistinct recollection of what happened at Hotherstone’s Farm. I remember a hearty welcome; a prodigious supper, which would have fed a whole village in the ...

I have not a word to say about my own sensations. My impression is that the shock inflicted on me completely suspended my thinking and feeling power. I certainly could not have kn...

Having told me the name of Mr. Candy’s assistant, Betteredge appeared to think that we had wasted enough of our time on an insignificant subject. He resumed the perusal of Rosanna ...

I walked to the railway station accompanied, it is needless to say, by Gabriel Betteredge. I had the letter in my pocket, and the nightgown safely packed in a little bag—both to be...

At the moment when I showed myself in the doorway, Rachel rose from the piano. I closed the door behind me. We confronted each other in silence, with the full length of the room b...

Late that evening, I was surprised at my lodgings by a visit from Mr. Bruff. There was a noticeable change in the lawyer’s manner. It had lost its usual confidence and spirit. He ...

The doctor’s pretty housemaid stood waiting for me, with the street door open in her hand. Pouring brightly into the hall, the morning light fell full on the face of Mr. Candy’s as...

How the interval of suspense in which I was now condemned might have affected other men in my position, I cannot pretend to say. The influence of the two hours’ probation upon _my_...

case which the doctor cites rests on the well-known authority of Mr. Combe.” The passage pointed out to me was expressed in these terms:— “Dr. Abel informed me,” says Mr. Combe, ...

But few words are needed, on my part, to complete the narrative that has been presented in the Journal of Ezra Jennings. Of myself, I have only to say that I awoke on the morning ...